Clip of the month

Part 1

When you first see this month’s Clip of the month, you could be forgiven for thinking it is a clip aimed at drivers rather than riders. Whilst this is, of course, true, it is, after all, a road safety advert warning car drivers to “Take longer to look for bikes”, it also provides a sobering pause for thought for all bikers of the importance of thinking for other road users.

As thinking riders, we can’t and don’t simply rely on the goodwill and good observation skills of other road users to keep us safe – it is our job to also think about what they have seen, to anticipate their next actions and to act accordingly if we are to avoid the dreaded words of “Sorry mate, I didn’t see you”.

Putting ourselves into the head of drivers, imagining what they can see, is a useful exercise. If you think they might not have seen you, consider changing position to give them the maximum scope to notice you.

“How to be a better rider” talks about the need to constantly scan the near, middle and far distance to maximise your awareness of potential hazards and to inform and assist your planning decisions. However, just because you have noticed a hazard doesn’t mean that the hazard has noticed, or is aware, of you. Has the driver made eye contact with you? What is the head doing? Where are they looking? How well are they driving?

These are just some of the questions we need to consider when reading the road ahead and planning our route.

Part 2

Many thanks to LAM national observer, committee member and webmaster Mark Clarke who has submitted a quite breath-taking clip of the month showing the potentially deadly folly of poor discipline and showboating.

Luckily the rider appears to walk away (relatively) unscathed, but his lucky escape could have been so much more serious both for him and the car his motorcycle flew into the side of.

Clearly no LAMkin would ride like this, but it serves as a useful reminder of why there are rules of the road, why riding to the system is so important and how a minority give the majority a bad name. Many thanks to Mark for the submission.